Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Wisconsin Post-Mortem

"Money can't buy you love, but it sure can by you power." As Matt Rothschild says:

Walker raised seven-to-ten times as much money as Barrett did. The
governor collected six-figure checks from a rogue’s gallery of the far
right: Bob Perry of Swift Boat infamy gave $500,000. Sheldon Adelson
gave $250,000, Richard Devos gave $250,000, Foster Friess gave $100,000.

A wrinkle in Wisconsin campaign finance laws, which allows for
unlimited contributions to a candidate between the time recall papers
are filed and the day that the election formally gets scheduled, gave
Walker four and a half months to sit on the lap of every rightwing
roofer in Missouri (two of whom gave him $250,000 checks), every
conservative Wall Street financier, every reactionary Texas oilman that
he could find.

On top of that, the Koch Brothers poured in millions through their
front groups, and the RNC funneled money in, as did other Republican
organizations.

The Wisconsin result—which followed upon a campaign that saw Walker
outspend his Democratic challenger by perhaps 8–1, as the governor’s
billionaire backers flooded the state with tens of millions of dollars
in “independent” expenditures on his behalf—should send up red flares
for Democrats as they prepare for this fall’s presidential and
congressional elections. The right has developed a far more
sophisticated money-in-politics template than it has ever before
employed. That template worked in Wisconsin, on behalf of a deeply
divisive and scandal-plagued governor, and it worked.

But, as Nichols is quick to point out, organized money will not always beat organized people, and the anti-Walker forces had other disadvantages. First, it must be noted, "they were let down by national Democratic players who never quite
recognized that Republican National Committee chairman Reince Preibus
and “independent” groups on the right were testing and perfecting
strategies for November."

As Rothschild tells it, in contrast to the "rightwing moneymen and the Republican Party," who understood the importance of this election, "the DNC was stingy, and Barack Obama couldn’t find Wisconsin with GPS
and a flashlight. Hell, he was in Minneapolis on Friday and didn’t even
bother to drive across the Mississippi to set foot in Wisconsin. He
never showed up. Neither did Joe Biden. All Obama did was send a tweet
on election morning."

Another problem was the unpopularity of recall elections, generally. Rothschild notes that exit polls showed that "60 percent of Wisconsin voters said recall should be
used only for “misconduct” in office, and not for other reasons."

It is important to recognize, therefore, that Walker won not, as Republicans want us to believe, because of the popularity of their ideas, but because of their staggering financial advantage, because the organized right made Walker's victory a national priority, and due to legitimate concerns voters had about using the recall procedure.

Nevertheless, as Greg Sargent states, "Scott Walker’s victory in tonight’s recall battle is a major wake-up
call for the left, Democrats, and unions about the true nature of the
new, post-Citizens United political landscape, and it should force a
major reckoning among liberals and Democrats about what this means for
the future."